Guns! Guns! Guns!

Late last night in a diner I overheard (actually, everybody in the diner overheard) two very drunk guys ranting at length to a sober stranger about why they need any gun they want and how Obama is out to eliminate the Second Amendment. It was the usual hopped-up nonsense plus booze. But it personifies the kind of dog-whistle gun madness that passes for normal here in the USA. Anyone with at least one foot in the real world is aghast at the gun-lobbied complacency with which US pols talk about having a “conversation” about our gun tidal wave.

Just as a for-instance on the enforced normality of an insane status quo, here are excerpts from a December WaPo article on gun laws in Virginia:

Gun supporters have for years dominated the General Assembly in Richmond, where visitors with permits can bring firearms into the state Capitol. This year, lawmakers abolished a law that had capped gun purchases to one a month…

In the aftermath of the massacre in Connecticut, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II said the state should consider allowing teachers to carry weapons at schools. Del. Robert G. Marshall (R- Prince William) went further Wednesday, offering a bill that would require schools to arm some teachers or other staff members.

…But despite a string of successes in Richmond, the gun lobby was unable to persuade state lawmakers this year to lift a ban on guns in unsecured areas of airports – or to prevent public colleges from banning weapons on campus.

…”The gun lobby has a firm grip around the General Assembly,” [Democratic Del. Patrick A.] Hope said, explaining his decision to scale back [his proposed gun control] legislation. “And politics is the art of the possible.”